Monday, January 28, 2013

I guess I'm briefly on a tack where I post more female-admiration posts than on subjects of doom-and-gloom, like climate change, space junk, Republicans in Congress, government shutdowns (hint: they're related), pollution in China, and bluefin tuna extinction. That may not last, there are too many gloom-and-doom subjects to be gloomy and doomy about.

So bear with me and just let me link to the some pictures (latest from November 2012) of the extraordinary Michelle Keegan of the UK, actress in the Coronation Street soap opera. I used to admire the ability of U.S. soaps to find nubile and lovely young actresses (many times regardless of acting ability, but some of they could act pretty well, too), but with U.S. soaps declining in favor of nighttime dramas like "The Vampire Diaries" and "Arrow", which do well with the babes, I guess I'll just have to let the Brits find the nubiles, and Michelle is one of the most curvy.

Saturday, January 26, 2013

As long as Michael Bublé stayed on good marital terms with his extraordinarily desirable wife Luisana Lopilato - and there were no indications of any trouble in their paradise - the odds that she would become the bearer of their progeny keep going up.

So it is with no surprise and plenty of vicarious appreciation that I congratulate the both of them on their good fortune.

I write a lot about climate change in this blog, and that's because I'm an employee of and a proponent for the nuclear power community. But climate change is not the only human-caused problem I keep track of. Another major and growing problem, with similar mitigation difficulties, is space debris, aka space junk. If one checks back at my undangerous 2013 predictions, I predict that there will be a major space junk or satellite collision this year. My odds of this prediction being right go up every year (as I said).

This new article from Space.com by Leonard David is a very good discussion of how bad the problem is getting, and how little we might be able to do it about it.

"NASA and the international community, Kessler said, "have already done
enough research to know that the environment will continue to get worse
if we continue on the same path … the only environmental issue to be
resolved is how quickly the environment in various regions
deteriorates."

.....

However, Kessler said that current mitigation practices are
insufficient, even with 100 percent compliance. Missing in action is a
plan to determine what do about the predicted worsening space
environment, he said — that is, how to stop or reverse the trend of
increased debris resulting from increased collisions."

One idea:

Unfortunately we don't have any Space Shuttles working any more, so this idea won't fly.

The World Bank president Jim Yong Kim wrote an editorial in the Washington Post (and probably appearing elsewhere) in which he well expressed the urgency of climate change - and the need for the world to get to work on addressing it seriously NOW.

"As economic leaders gathered in Davos this week for the World Economic Forum,
much of the conversation was about finances. But climate change should
also be at the top of our agendas, because global warming imperils all
of the development gains we have made.

If there is no action soon, the future will become bleak. The World Bank Group released a report in
November that concluded that the world could warm by 7.2 degrees
Fahrenheit (4 degrees Celsius) by the end of this century if concerted
action is not taken now"

The report is pretty good. The news it conveys is not.

Damn the skeptics, full speed ahead. (There are 1,227 comments on this editorial. I didn't bother reading them.)

Wednesday, January 23, 2013

But Sloane Stephens bouncing an injured Serena bodes well for the other juggernauts in the tournament, Sharapova and Azarenka, who look to be on a No. 1 vs. No. 2 collision course now for the final. Except for the fact that Stephens is definitely cast well in the role of giant-slayer.

Monday, January 21, 2013

It's gratifying and unsurprising that the Republicans in Congress are held in low-and-getting-lower esteem by the general public. Maybe if that keeps gnawing at them, they'll ultimately realize that what they're doing is both bad for THEM and also for the country at large.

"The poll found that 49 percent of respondents have a negative view of
the GOP, the highest negative marks for the party in the poll since
2008. Just 26 percent said they have a positive view of the Republican
Party."

Saturday, January 19, 2013

With Beckham done, the LA Galaxy had to get another British star - and while Frank Lampard may not have the star power and the Spice Girls wife that Becks had, he's a really good player.Lampard, LA Galaxy transfer deal

"Lampard might not be the celebrity that Beckham or Kaka is, but he marries significant popularity with plenty of industry.

"But in the second season of the Lifetime show, Jennifer will strip completely... according to British newspaper, The Sun.They write that bosses on the cable
channel will 'blur out' Hewitt's more intimate parts and that she is
hitting the gym four times a week to make sure she's in tip top form."

Calls for a tape leak, I think...

Well, I guess I'll just have to be content with this, and think that it's not that far from this to nothing.

Tennis, anyone? So far, Robson's take-out of Kvitova has been the biggest news, but she got bounced by Sloane Stephens of the U.S. I gotta follow Wozniacki because I predicted she'd win a Slam this year; but double-bagel Sharapova is looking really good -- were it not for the persistent presence of Serena Williams, she'd probably be the oddsmaker's favorite to win the women's side.

Some interesting matches coming up: Woz against Kuznetsova; Serena against Ovi's fiance (and I have to get BACK to that subject); and Ivanovic v. Radwanska. I still hope and wish Ana could get back in the championship conversations.

On the men's side, it's business as usual for the Big Three, Djokovic, Murray, and Federer, who are set to get into the semis. I suppose that it's likely Ferrer will be the fourth, with the only possibility that Berdych gives Djokovic a test. Murray isn't looking superb, but he's still pretty good.

The No. 2-ranked Sharapova overwhelmed Japan’s Misaki Doi in 47
minutes Wednesday, even less time than she’d needed to beat fellow
Russian Olga Puchkova two days earlier in her first competitive match of
2013.

No woman had posted back-to-back 6-0, 6-0 wins at a Grand Slam since 1985.

Yet it didn’t excite the 25-year-old Sharapova, who wasn’t even alive when Wendy Turnbull did it at the Australian Open.

“It’s not really the statistic I want to be known for,” Sharapova said
in her most matter-of-fact way. “I want to be known for winning Grand
Slam titles, not that I won two matches 6-0, 6-0.”

As the article notes, Pennsylvania made an attempt to do this before the 2012 election, but didn't make it. But as long as Republicans have aspirations to be a ruling minority (and they do, they do), they will keep trying to make ways that their fringe voice can be in power. And that's SCARY.

"The GOP's redistricting successes enabled Republicans to maintain their House majority, even though the Democrats got more votes. If every state awarded its electoral votes by these gerrymandered congressional districts, Romney would have won by a 276-262 margin, despite Obama's popular vote margin, calculated David Wasserman, the nonpartisan Cook Political Report's House expert."

Deli meats - this is one that frequently comes up, so I'm quoting:
"Packaged lunch meats last about 7-10 days longer than the best by date, whereas fresh meats will last around 5-6 days. Salami and pepperoni last much longer -- around 2-3 weeks."

But the problem is: is the date stamped on the store-bought package of fresh deli meat a "Best by" or "Sell By" date? Either way, it's usually the day it's bought, so I'm going with "Sell By" - which might mean a couple of more days than anything with a "Best By" date. I.e., if I bought deli ham and the date on the package is the day of purchase, I would figure that the Best By date is at least two days after that, so that gives me 7-8 days from date of purchase on the fresh deli ham. NOW, ham is made to be less perishable than, say, roast beef or chicken, so I'd be more forgiving toward deli ham than deli roast beef or chicken.

Syrup: never spoils, according to the article. (But mold sometimes forms on top -- and can be skimmed off).

Tea: 6 months to a year

Spices: 2-3 years. But in my experience, an opened half-used container of just about any spice is not as strong as something just opened.

Monday, January 14, 2013

Oh, I know there's been lots of Golden Globes red carpet fashion coverage. So I figured I'd rate who wore it best indicating that what was under it was really good.

Kate Hudson once again had me put her on a pedestal of amazingness, Jessica Alba looked totally magnificent (and I'm a sucker for a waterfall of diamonds in the bodice), Katharine McPhee showed that God had smiled upon her in the bosom department, Jessica Lopez was slinky and curvy, and Salma Hayek was just simply a mother I'd like to ... repeatedly.

It seems impossible to take such shenanigans that may have significant and severe economic repercussions seriously, but apparently the idiotic GOP members in Congress are serious. Remember one of my predictions: national parks closed in the summer. This may be one of my more LIKELY predictions, sadly.

The other sad thing is that the Republicans are touting the line that they're so crazy they can't control themselves. Heck of a way to try to convince the public that you are trustworthy enough to actually GOVERN the country.

"Republican leadership officials, in a series of private meetings and
conversations this past week, warned that the White House, much less the
broader public, doesn’t understand how hard it will be to talk restive
conservatives off the fiscal ledge."

To which I ask, how the f*ck did these jokers get elected to national office in the first place, if they don't understand what it takes to govern responsibly?

She was asked if her constituents supported a government shutdown.
"Yes they are, yes they are. But if they want us to be thoughtful in
what is done. And this is the good thing: you know, maybe it's better to
keep it open so we can keep cutting it. What we want to do is look at
all of these ramifications. If you were to do the shutdown, exactly what
is going to continue, who is going to hold the purse?"

When asked whether she would risk default or shutdown if she didn't
get the spending cuts she wanted, Blackburn said, "I think that there is
a way to avoid default. If it requires shutting down certain portions
of the government, let's look at that. Let's put these options on the
table, be very thoughtful, but get this spending pattern broken."

If a solid chunk of House conservatives buy into this – and if they are
backed by opinion-shaping voices on the right like Rush Limbaugh, Jim
DeMint and Fox News – then Boehner should be safe. He can get a debt
ceiling hike through and then force a showdown with Obama less dire
overtones. In that event, the worst that would happen is that the
sequester as currently constituted would go into effect, delivering a
blow to the economy – but nothing nearly as severe as a default. Or the
C.R. would expire and the government would shut down in the absence of a
new agreement. It’s just a guess, but if the 1995 shutdown (Clinton vs.
Gingrich) is any clue, public opinion would side against the GOP and
quickly yield a deal more favorable to the White House’s terms. Either
way, Boehner would probably get credit from the right for putting up a
real fight.

Numerous reports all over Twitter and the Web about the horrific air quality situation in Beijing right now. As I've predicted before, I'll predict again that lack of environmental laws might eventually turn into a civil unrest situation that could possibly result in the end of the totalitarian rule in the country. There are small signs that the government is being more open about the badness of the situation - and there's a faint echo of how the Chernobyl disaster forced the Soviet Union to be more open about THAT situation, eventually contributing to the breakup of aforesaid union.

“The public should understand the importance of development as well as the critical need to safeguard the bottom line of the environmental pollution. The choice between development and environment protection should be made by genuinely democratic methods…“The government cannot always think about how to intervene to ‘guide public opinion.’ It should publish the facts and interests involved, and let the public itself produce a balance based on the foundation of diversification. ”The government is not the only responsible party for environmental pollution. As long as the government changes its previous method of covering up the problems and instead publishes the facts, society will know who should be blamed.”

It will be interesting to see the Chinese government’s reaction to this
episode. We already have one depressing reaction – Xinhua’s tweet about the “fog” – though no one’s buying it and it’s hard to believe they can get away
with this sort of spin much longer. What is more interesting to me is
the unfortunate timing of this pollution event. After all, the Chinese
government has just racked up a couple of positive wins in air pollution
control, ...

Saturday, January 12, 2013

Now, I've used the word "ramification" numerous times. And heard it a lot in common English usage. But it occurred to me the other day to wonder if "ramify" was a word. It turns out that yes, it is a word, but obviously since I wasn't sure if it was, I've never used it.

So I was wondering if anyone else has ever used it? Ever seen it in a book?

A couple of years ago, California was a punching bag for conservatives claiming that high taxes and immigration were messing things up there, and business was leaving in droves, and there was a major budget problem.

Not any more. Under a liberal governor, California is back on track, budget is balanced, and important priorities are being funded.

"California job growth tops the national average, unemployment has
fallen below double-digit levels for the first time in nearly four
years, and voters in November approved a tax increase that closed most
of the lingering budget gap.

The state Department of Finance on Thursday projected unemployment will fall to 9.6 percent this year and 8.7 percent in 2014.

California
faced deficits of $9 billion just a year ago and $25 billion two years
ago. Brown noted that federal government issues could challenge
California's forecasts and warned the state not to get over exuberant."

Katie Cassidy (Arrow) and Morena Baccarin (Homeland, and of course, Firefly) are two of my current TV favorites, and though I'm not really fond of the pants, they were still way cute at the People's Choice Awards. Katie has gone from starlet bombshell to a much more mature beauty very easily.

The surprise was Rachael Leigh Cook, who I had completely lost track of, and discovered that she'd been on'Perception' last year, and was in 'Psych' recurringly, about the time I stopped watching that show. She looked great and glamorous, and was NOT wearing pants.

Pictures of them on the red carpet:

Morena Baccarin

Katie Cassidy

Rachael Leigh Cook

And an obligatory yummy shot of Cassidy, here as Laurel Lance in Arrow in a nice red wrap dress for her date with Tommy Merlyn (which didn't end up going too well):

"Top House leadership aides said that the GOP
is mapping a plan to reject new taxes and demand a dollar-for-dollar
spending cut for every added dollar of debt. "We will have all GOP
members united with Speaker Boehner and the leadership," said a House
leadership advisor. "The president has gotten the last nickel of new tax
for the remainder of his presidency."

Key advisors said the initial result will likely be a shutdown. Two top aides put the likelihood at 50 percent."

"Rep. Matt Salmon (R-Ariz.) appeared on 'CBS: Face the Nation' on Sunday, voicing firm support for a suspension of government
services. He cited 1995's federal stoppage, pegging that event as the
"impetus" for "some real serious compromise."

.....
Additional Republicans pledged this past week
that a government shutdown was in the cards without spending cuts and
entitlement reforms. In an interview on MSNBC's "Morning Joe," Sen. Pat
Toomey (R-Pa.) said that his party needed "to be willing to tolerate"
that possibility. Sen. John Cornyn (R-Texas) used an op-ed in The Houston Chronicle to express similar sentiments, adding that "it may be necessary."

"U.S. Rep. Blaine Luetkemeyer, R-St. Elizabeth, says he’s prepared to
shut down the federal government and block a debt-ceiling deal, if
that’s what it takes to force President Barack Obama to accept dramatic
budget cuts – especially in the entitlement programs."

"Sen. Pat Toomey, R-Pa., said a partial shutdown would be “a hell of a lot
better” than allowing Obama to raise taxes or increase spending. Sen.
Ted Cruz, R-Texas, had a similar take: “I
think we have to be prepared to go so far as to shut the government
down if we don’t get some serious policies to stop the out of control
spending to tackle the debt.”

There should be no debate over the debt ceiling. If the Republicans want to shut down the government, all the blame for doing it should fall on them, and them alone.

A glimpse, a momentary view intowhat normally resides behind the doorswhich open only by an invita-tion; now they take a way that just ignoresconvention, giving them a chance to stay
in private rooms and yet in public too.Why do they let us leer and stamp and stareat that which lovers have purview? I musethat those who say they wish to be desiredare right -- that even if they grant their hues
and cries of ecstasy to one, to be admiredrequires a multitude to be awareof beauty which is usually obscured,and priv'leges esteemingly preferred.

Wednesday, January 9, 2013

"If current trends continue, the species will soon be functionally
extinct in the Pacific, and the frozen bodies held in a few
high-security Asian warehouses will be the last gasp the species.

More
than nine out of 10 of the species recently caught were too young to
have reproduced, meaning they may have been the last generation of the
bluefin tuna.

Amanda Nickson, of the Pew Environment Group, which
produced the latest report, said: "There is no logical way a fishery can
have such a high level of fishing on juveniles and continue."

......
She called for fishing of the species to be halted as a matter of
urgency. Although there are measures to manage the exploitation of
bluefin tuna in the Atlantic, and some measures in the eastern Pacific,
the main spawning ground for Pacific bluefin tuna in the western part of
that ocean is not managed. The main fishing fleets exploiting the
stocks are from Japan, Mexico, South Korea and the US, and the high
value of the few remaining fish is a further encouragement to fishermen
to hunt down the last of the species."

"Though he has been lieutenant governor since 2006, Bolling appears to be
the least well-known of the three men, as 72 percent of voters said
they did not know enough about him to form an opinion. Sixty-one percent
said the same of McAuliffe, while 41 percent have no opinion of
Cuccinelli, who is viewed favorably by 33 percent of voters and
unfavorably by 25 percent."

Saturday, January 5, 2013

Hot on the heels of my posting about Gerard Butler dating the incomprehensibly gorgeous Madalina Ghenea comes this Daily Mail article stating the obvious - Gerard might just possibly slightly have been attracted to her for her physical attractiveness.

The hottest spot, from data available to AccuWeather.com, was Red
Rocks Point, which soared to 48.6 degrees C, or 119.5 degrees F. Red
Rocks is located in the southeast of the state, right along the chilly
waters of the Great Australian Bight."

The ongoing Midwestern drought is causing significant water level problems in the Mississippi and Missouri rivers, which in turn is causing barge transport difficulties, which could have economic ramifications.

Tell that to conservatives who don't think climate and weather are important economic issues.

The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers say that they're going to keep the channel open and deep enough for traffic, but when you have to excavate rock (instead of just bottom sediments) to do that, well, that means the situation is getting serious.

And then this, commenting on the possibility that billionaire Ted Forstmann was the father of her baby (as yet unborn).

Finally this, in which the father's identity was revealed, though at the time it was merely speculated.

Subsequent to the birth, Lakshmi and true father Dell had a bit of a tussle about his role in the child's life, ultimately settled.

But now comes this interesting article, in which it was revealed that Forstmann would have raised the baby as his and provided for her over her whole life - if Padma didn't tell the world who the real father was, and let the world think that the baby was his.

Ah the webs we weave when first we practice to deceive. Ultimately Padma went with the honest route, which I think was prudent in this day of accurate DNA tests.

Thursday, January 3, 2013

Julianne Hough several times indicated that she would likely not have sex before marriage. But when you're in a pretty long term relationship with Ryan Seacrest, and you're young, hot, and sexy, that might not be possible.

Julianne Hough "No Sex Before Marriage"
has the full quote: “I want to be with that special person,” she tells CosmoGIRL! in
excerpts posted on ET.online. “I think [the choice] to have sex before
marriage is an individual one, but if you’re just with one person, it’s
only for one good reason, and [waiting to have sex] will strengthen that
relationship. I’m not trying to preach consequences here, but I think
when you say no, down the line it will be a better decision.”
(note that this was in 2008)

So they curled up in a king-size bed and hibernated with fellow bears: the potty-mouthed comedy Ted
on the hotel TV and an enormous canister of gummy bears open on the
duvet. "We couldn't work," Hough says, the next day. "We just got to
stay in our bed and in our pajamas—until the power cut out."

Let's
just say they probably never saw the end of that talking-teddy-bear
flick. "It was great," says Hough, smiling conspiratorially. "We put on
some candles, had some sexy time....Ha!"

OK, dear reader, you decide. To V or not to V, that is the question.

Now, is it a big deal? Not really. But I have always thought that the fascination with celebrity procreation is that it partly proves the Beautiful People are indeed Having Sex, which we cannot otherwise prove except for the occasional accidental or purposeful sex tape leak. Given the climate of the times, the atmosphere of Hollywood, and the fact that Ryan Seacrest is a young good-looking and wealthy silverback who has really staked his claim to the alpha female in the form of Julianne, I would be perfectly stunned if she hadn't already abandoned the V vow and got down to doing what comes naturally with Ryan. Besides the fact that she says she loves him and he appears to love her and they are doing all the right things, relationship-wise (at least publically). Which then makes one wonder why they don't get married. But we have seen that marriage can screw up an otherwise perfectly good romantic relationship.

So I don't know if Julianne and Ryan are having sex, like many, many, many, many, many romantically linked couples are. I suspect, based on the foregoing, that they are.

And if they are - damn, I'd like to see THAT sex tape.

(And this is still one of the main reasons why, even though the bikini shots are appealing, too):

And when they're winning, they're also f*cking up the whole country, because nothing they are doing or trying to do has any basis in reality.

* Quoting Greg Sargent from the Washington Post's Plum Line:

"Indeed, you can read through reams of the coverage without learning three basic facts about this fight:
1) Republican leaders will ultimately agree to raise the debt ceiling, and they know it, because they themselves have previously admitted that not doing so will badly damage the economy.
2) Because of the above, a hike in the debt ceiling is not something
that Democratic leaders want and that Republican leaders don’t. In other
words, it is not a typical bargaining chip in negotiations, in the way
spending cuts (which Republicans want and Dems don’t) or tax hikes
(which Dems want and Republicans don’t) are.
3) And so, if and when Republicans do agree to raise the debt
ceiling, it will not constitute any kind of concession on their part —
even though they will continue to portray it as such to demand
concessions in return. It will only constitute Republicans agreeing not
to damage the whole country, which does not constitute (one hopes) them
making a sacrifice."

So it is now up to us -- and to me -- to write directly to John Boehner and President Obama and tell them that we will not accept any negotiation over the debt ceiling increase -- BECAUSE WE KNOW THAT THE REPUBLICANS WILL EVENTUALLY VOTE TO RAISE IT.

Either that, or seriously risk getting blamed for tanking both our economy and the rest of the world's.

"During the campaign for last month’s House of Representatives elections
Mr Abe said he would determine “the optimum power-generation makeup” for
Japan within 10 years. Before taking office last month, he said he
would review the Democratic Party of Japan-led government’s policy of
not allowing new nuclear plants to be built.

In his latest
statement, Mr Abe said the Japanese people are worried about having
sufficient electricity in the immediate future. He said parties that
called for a shift away from nuclear energy were therefore “not trusted”
in the recent election."

Reality bites, which is exactly what I've been saying for months. I'm sorry that they had a nuclear incident due to a once-in-a-lifetime tsunami. But now they know what can happen with a coastal unit. They can fixt that. The article notes that several other plants in the quake zone did pretty well (in fact, maybe better than the North Anna unit after the freakish Northeast U.S. earthquake that had an epicenter almost directly under it).

Real interesting science here - first-year ice is thinner than multi-year ice, I would think (obviously), so that it would make sense that more sunlight penetrates a layer of first-year ice, causing more warming of the ocean water under the first-year ice, as compared to the water under multi-year ice.

But even though that's an obvious supposition, in order to prove that is actually the case, you have to make measurements. And that's what these intrepid Arcticologists did.

Tuesday, January 1, 2013

I never posted this, when lothario Leonardo DiCaprio had a brief dalliance with Italian model Madaline Ghenea:

"Which brings us to DiCaprio. This article has the whole potential bedmate list.

Some of the babes may have just been inaccurate rumors, some of them flings (lucky, lucky), but there was definitely Kristen Zang in the 90s, and then this amazing run:

-Gisele Bundchen, who would be virtually impossible to surpass unless you wanted a girl with a little more curve than length, in which case you could then land

- Bar Refaeli, who combines a sweet face with a devilishly soft and curvaceous body, which we've seen virtually all of; they stayed together awhile, but perhaps her level of sophistication as a fashion model wasn't quite on par with Leo's worldliness, but breaking up with someone of her attributes had to be really hard unless you could then end up with

- Blake Lively, an accomplished actress, back in the lengthy mode, perhaps more glamorously pretty than the swimsuit model ravishingness of Bar, but it seems that maybe Blake sensed that Leo was still longing for the purer lingerie look so they didn't last long, and now Leo ends up with, if truth can be believed,

Madalina Ghenea.

I'm arguing here that each step in this progression could be construed as a step up, or at least level with the previous titleholder of DiCaprio main squeeze. But how could you possibly, arguably, SURPASS Bundchen, Refaeli, and Lively? Again,

Madalina Ghenea.

When I first heard about this, I obviously looked up Miss Madalina, and I immediately formed the following opinion of her:

She's the most beautiful woman I've ever seen. Now, I obviously have seen pictures of a lot of other beautiful women, and there are clearly women who are (or were) closely competitive with Madalina - several Playboy playmates, Victoria's Secret models, a few of the Sports Illustrated swimsuit models, a number of actresses, because there is a range of attractiveness and there are a number of different combinations that are very appealing. But in terms of a combination of facial features and stunning figure, Madalina is classically exquisite.

Fortunately she's a lingerie model, which means there are LOTS of pictures of her demonstrating how frighteningly gorgeous she is. My selection below is intended to highlight her various looks and isn't comprehensive. It is very easy to go on a Madalina Ghenea image search and not come back for a long long time.

And it's worth the trip.

So here's my advice to Leo. If you've been searching for the ultimate girlfriend, at least in the pulchritude category, you can't, can't do better than this. Plus, you're 37. Marry (or at least establish the basis for a long-term relationship with), enjoy as much lovemaking as the human body can handle with her, impregnate her to establish the foutainhead, and then look back on a romantic life well-lived."

Well, quite obviously (or obliviously), Leo did not take my advice. But it now appears that the wily Gerard Butler has. And that, in my book, is real, real, real, smart.

Last year I did pretty good with my not-too-much-of-a-stretch predictions (revisited mid-year here). I was getting worried at the end but Andy Murray and President Obama came through for me. So here on the first day of 2012 are my "undangerous" predictions for 2013, with short comments.

One surprise I didn't realize until I looked back at them - while I predicted (hopefully) that Khloe Kardashian would get pregnant, I mentioned that Kanye West appeared to be in a baby-making mood with new girl (at the time) Kim. Well, surprise surprise, she turned out to be the one preggers at year end.

Well, here are my predictions for 2013. Actually, these are considerably riskier than last year. I expect I'll be lucky to get five of them right.

1. Caroline Wozniacki wins a tennis Grand Slam-- I think it's her time, if Serena falters. Hard to tell with Sharapova. Kvitova and Vuvuzela (er, Azarenka) are tough. Woz is down to #10 in the rankings, so this one might be risky.2. McCauliffe elected governor in Virginia-- If hard-line, pugnacious, take-no-prisoners Cooch the Gooch Cuccinelli gets elected, God Help Us All.

3. Arctic sea ice doesn't set new minimum record; skeptics publicize this everywhere-- After all, you can't have a minimum every year, unless global warming is accelerating and the positive feedbacks are dominating. Wait a minute...

4. Jennifer Aniston has a baby-- I think, just to get the paparazzi off her back, she'll either get pregnant or adopt. I'm leaning toward the Katherine Heigl strategy - keep your gorgeous looks and adopt. However, Justin Theroux might prefer the natural method, because that would keep Jennifer on her back a lot.

5. The GOP House fights another pitched battle over raising the debt ceiling, and only capitulates when China threatens to cause us economic harm because our pending recession is hurting their economy. -- Only makes sense, the Chinese will only put up with this nonsense for so long.

6. The U.S. Men's Soccer team fails to qualify for the 2014 FIFA World Cup.-- They don't have any real scoring stars to take them there. I think they will be shocked by two losses to Jamaica. Sorry, Jurgen.

7. Playboy will make an inspired choice for Playmate - Audrey Nicole (@msaudreynicole).-- I have to toss one in here that I just basically want to happen; I'm not sure how likely it is but she's amazingly gorgeous.

8. Due to the nation's budget problems, several large national parks will close for at least a few days during the summer vacation season, to demonstrate how bad the situation is.
-- This would be a smart way to sway public opinion.

9. Joe Lieberman gets a position in the Obama administration.-- Maybe head of the CIA.

10. A major satellite collision in space emphasizes the space debris problem.
-- The odds of this keep increasing every year!